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These are all thoughts that run through my mind at the wee hours of the morning.

You know, when normal people sleep.

Unfortunately, I am not normal, and I no longer sleep through the night.

My body seems to like 4:30 am as a good wake up time with thoughts of coffee cakes and baby slippers.

Not cool body, not cool at all.

Since I can't sleep and all TV is crap at 4:30 am, no baby story is not a good thing to watch, ever. I'm writing a blog post.

About spiced nuts. With bacon.

I made them for our New Year's Eve party, and my goodness they were amazing.

The spiced nut mix was spicy and sweet, salty, full of cumin flavour, they were excellent on their own. But then you cooked some bacon drizzled with maple syrup and crumbled it in with the nuts. Turn down the ridiculous, it was amazing.

The husband first started picking out all of the bacon before he realized, hey, the nuts are pretty damn delicious too.

I highly recommend doubling or tripling the recipe. I doubled it and it gone after one evening.

2 cups raw, unsalted mixed nuts

1 large egg white, beaten

2 tablespoons brown sugar, firmly packed

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

4 slices bacon

1 tablespoon maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the brown sugar, salt, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and ground ginger. Stir with a fork to combine well. In another large bowl, toss the nuts and the egg white until the nuts are thoroughly coated. Pour the spice mix into the large bowl and toss to coat the nuts evenly.

Spread nuts out onto prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, stirring frequently and breaking up any clumps that may form, until nuts are just toasted. Transfer nuts to a large plate, in a single layer, to cool. Reserve the baking sheet and leave the oven on.

Place the slices of bacon on the reserved baking sheet and brush each slice with maple syrup. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crispy, turning over only once. Transfer bacon slices to paper towel to drain and let cool completely.

Break, or chop, the bacon slices into fine pieces and toss in a large bowl with the nuts.